On the way back to the hotel, we drove past something that surprised us both. And simultaneously said “we have to stop, you can go in!!!!”.
Just a random BOEING C-97G STRATOFREIGHTER, next to the road. And it’s opened so you can go inside, check it out, even sit in the cockpit. And everything is still hooked up.
We spent an easy hour here, one of the things I did not get a picture of but I found hilarious. Was the pic nic tables had a few ladies, sitting there scrolling their phones, and the kids and guys, dads, men ,etc were having the time of their lives on it.
My GF made the comment that I had more fun here than the entire 3 hours at House on the rock. I also appreciated she jumped into the right seat and also had a pretty big smile.
After this, we headed back to the hotel for a much needed nap. ( adulting on a weekend away is hard) And had reservations in Madison for dinner.
We had a great dinner and were back in bed by 10.
Unfortunately not much sleep.
10/12/25 Sunday
Another heart breakfast and coffee and we hit the road back to Chicago. It was another beautiful day, blue skies and sun. Getting in early afternoon. With my cough and inability to get much sleep, I went to get checked out.
And it turns out my cough had turned into Viral Pneumonia, I cannot say I recommend it. But I thought it important to get checked out, especially with a flight the next day. Being viral it has to run its course, but with some more OTC’s, an Inhaler, and some strong steroids we were on our way. Dinner with my Gf, and all her family that night was good and many stories were told, some of them I had not met yet.
Back home, and sleep. At least better than previously.
Monday was spent knocking out some things on her list, packing, both of us catching up on some work. Heading to O’hare at 3:00, we bid adieu, and I head into the terminal. The delta check in stations are down, so it takes an extra 30 mins, but the precheck line was moving fast.
Eventually after a few short delays I boarded my flight. With a planned short connection in Seattle, I was scheduled on the last daily flight from there to PSC.
After boarding, and everyone getting settled we pushed back and made our way to the tarmac. If you aren’t aware, O’hare is huge, 15-20+ min taxi time is not uncommon.
We are trucking right along, when I hear the engines shut down. But not the normal slow ramp down, like a hard kill. .. parts of the cabin power down.
Ding ding:
Pilot “ well, the good news is we caught it before we were in the air and needed to set down in Nebraska, the bad news is we have been informed by the plane behind us fuel is rapidly leaking from the right wing, and we need to do the same”
We then waited as we were towed back to our gate to de plane.
Ding ding
Pilot: “Once you hold tight at the gate, this may be a quick fix from our maint team. “
I knew at this point there was no way I would make my tight connection, so just lined up in front of the gate agents with only a few folks in front of me.
After about 20 mins in line it started to slowly move.
Pilot” well folks, they will have to defuel the plane, and pull parts of the wing to repair the leak, could be a 3 hour delay, unless they can re route another flight this way. But, at that time the crew and I will be against our max hours”
To the credit, the Pilot was good, and folks even clapped for him after being upfront about everything.
Eventually I made it to the gate agents, when I relayed my flight path, they knew instantly that I was out of luck. With PSC being my destination. I stayed polite, and professional to them. And said either 1st flight or the last flight of the day. They got me figured out and even offered to comp a hotel. I figured another night with the GF was not a bad thing, and it could have been way worse.
I had work, in Oregon in the morning, including 2 new people who had an 8 hour class scheduled with me. So I had some juggling to do, after eventually getting ahold of my GF, she headed her way to pick me up.
- Note worthy, O ‘hare has parking agents, and they do not take crap from anyone. They whistle, ********** cars, and other things to keep traffic flowing in the pick up and drop off lanes.
- I knew it would be at least 45 mins for my pickup, so got comfy.
- 1 individual in a mustang stopped in the middle of the road, and was on the phone. A parking agent walked up, blew his whistle, and gestured with his light up wand for this guy to park in the right sport or keep it moving.
- The driver, gets out starts yelling at the parking agent, drops the N word ( very bad idea) and throws a punch at the agent. Every parking agent comes running and a brawl starts. This shut down the non taxi pick up area for a few hours.
- Luckly my GF saw the flow not moving, and ended up driving to the drop off lanes that were empty, and picked me up there.
Back at her place, I got out my laptop and started working out some logistics. And should be in the office by early afternoon. After some plan b,c and d, resources and instructions sent out for work I crashed hard.
Another 3 am alarm, and the next day’s flights all went well. Even though I ended up running through SLC, on my phone, as work had blown up. And trying to not die, sucking on my inhaler like my life depended on it. Landing at PSC at noon, picking up my truck and heading straight to the office.
What a weekend,
